Welcome one and all to Smogon's very first ever round of Ubers Suspect Testing. Jibaku, Great Sage, and I have agreed that we should start with OHKO Clause, because we believe it will impact the metagame the least. Will we be proven wrong? Who knows. That's for all of us to find out.

The way this will work is as follows. After 2 weeks of laddering, the Ubers Council will convene to decide whether the metagame is stable enough to move to a large-scale measure. The only reason this would not be done is if the metagame is so uncompetitive that it does not function at all. At this time, they can also vote to amend the clauses in certain ways as a further option in the vote. After this meeting, we will look at the ladder and use a set of requirements to determine who can vote. We're taking a page from OU's book and setting the requirements at a Glicko2 rating of 2000 and a Glicko2 deviation of 55 or lower on the Ubers ladder. Note that this is the UBERS ladder, not the Ubers Suspect ladder. There will be no Ubers Suspect ladder, since we want to keep all the activity concentrated. Also be aware that, if we are not satisfied with the amount of people who qualify with the above ratings, we may lower it; do NOT rely on this, however.

Here's a timeline:

Sunday, October 21: Ubers Ladder has been reset and OHKO Clause has been removed

Sunday, November 4, 11:59 PM: Round finishes. A screenshot will be taken of the ladder and a thread will be posted to identify yourselves.

Tuesday, November 6, 11:59PM: Special applications are due and we will start voting.

Sometime after the round ends but before we begin voting, we will have a council meeting on #uberscouncil on SynIRC. The date and time will be announced further down the road when the council members' schedules allow.

I'm going to try to use mostly stall teams for this suspect. They are the only ones that could actually be affected by OHKO moves so I feel they are the best ones to tell whether OHKO is somehow overwhelming or just a trolly gimmick.

I'll be using my Balance team so that I can see whether or not the removal of the OHKO clause actually does anything to my bulkier Pokemon while still being able to ladder efficiently thanks to my cleaners not caring about OHKO moves in the slightest. 10-1 now (mostly cause of hax and teams that aren't too too good), I have a LONG way to go in order to make reqs o_o`

I think Stall teams have the most to gain in using OHKO moves. Stall teams usually find a lot of passive free turns where they typically set up hazards or phaze. If you have a free turn and the opponent is about to switch, if I was playing stall I'd be willing to give a OHKO move a shot.

Offensive teams I think have less to gain. Set up moves or powerful attacking has more merit on free turns than going for OHKO moves. If it fails, you're on the backfoot, and that's a huge problem for frailer offensive teams. Stall teams have the defensive backbone necessary to take a OHKO risk. It would also be an interesting stall breaking option for stall teams, as stall vs stall is typically reliant on the teambuilding, and this new dimension to the game would make matchups between defensive teams even more intricate.

there's a reason we have banned all OHKO moves from all tiers, it's because they're completely uncompetitive and take away skill from battles, replacing it with sheer luck...really I only see these OHKO moves as a last-ditch effort for the loser of a battle to overtake the winner as a result of a 30% chance, what kind of bs is that?

^ easy kid. There is a reason for testing. If it proves to be unhealthy then it will remained banned BUT with some solid -sorta- evidence this time. So far my thoughts have been confirmed: it doesn't have a -negative- impact on the metagame. Most of the teams I've played against don't have OHKO users/moves. IMO, it will remain as a gimmick on lower ranks in the ladder if unbanned. Let's see what happens in 10 days

OK so I ended up testing HO and balanced and I ended up almost never encountering a single OHKO move x_x. There was this one time I saw a Kyogre using Sheer Cold but saying its efforts were futile is an understatement (lol), there is no place for these moves to be used in such a fast-paced environment. If you thought sleeping Ogre were setup bait for Dragon Dance Rayquaza wait until you see what Scald Sheer Clod Rest talk variants are.

I'll go ahead and try OHKO moves on my own team later on (on an alt though :P), but I'm not too hopeful about their potential.

@Lavos Spawn, yeah but they risk losing a winning game if their move DOES miss too lol.

Official Data Miner

For the record, I think removing OHKO clause is an AWFUL idea. But I also believe hax items (Brightpowder, Quick Claw, etc.) should be banned. Pokemon has enough of a luck component WITHOUT adding additional elements.

Other Metas Leader

I just wanted to say that in one of my battles, I had Fire Blast miss 5 times in a row. Now that did not cost me said battle; however, an OHKO move (which has twice the chance of hitting as Fire Blast does missing) hitting me 5 times in a row would definitely cost me a battle. As a result, I feel the OHKO Clause should remain.

Your reasoning to ban OHKO move is shitty, though. Have somebody actually hit you with an OHKO moves 5x? You need to back your decision with less theorymon and more play experience. Using one outlier game to show how extreme luck played against you doesn't prove anything (other than you had bad luck).

Other Metas Leader

You are correct, and as far as I saw OHKO moves were rarely used (the few times being Sheer Cold Kyogre), and only successfully hit me once; however, it is still luck as you mentioned. I shouldn't have to lose or win a game because of luck.